The present invention relates to a connecting member for a clothes airer, in particular, but not exclusively, a tower airer.
Clothes airers come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are primarily focused with providing maximum drying capacity whilst keeping the size of the airer to a minimum. Typically, clothes ariers have a collapsed position whereby they are folded in upon themselves to allow them to be stored away in a space saving fashion, and an expanded position in which they provide a frame work to which garments can be hung for drying purposes.
One such clothes airer is known as a tower airer. Conventional tower airers are typically comprised of four frame elements connected at their respective ends to a connecting member. The connecting member is usually comprised of a central hollow tube for receiving the end of a frame element at either end of the tube, and two additional hollow tubes pivotally mounted on either side of the central tube. The pivotally mounted tubes usually have two extreme positions, one in which the tube is parallel to the central tube and the other in which the tube is perpendicular to the hollow tube. However, the use of such a connecting member gives rise to a tower airer that can only be collapsed to a thickness of three tubes which limits the number of units that can be distributed at any one time and takes up excessive storage space in the home. To maximise the number of units that can be transported and distributed around the globe and to minimise the amount of storage space taken by a tower airer, it is desirable to keep the thickness of the unit in a collapsed state to a minimum.
Embodiments of the present invention have been made in consideration of the abovementioned problems.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connecting member for connecting a plurality of frame elements, the connecting member comprising a core section having a width and two supporting members for supporting frame elements extending in different directions from the connecting member, the connecting member having at least one additional member for supporting a further frame element, the or each additional supporting member being pivotally connected to the core section and moveable between a first position in which the additional supporting member lies within the width of the core section and a second position in which a frame element supported by the additional support will extend in a direction generally perpendicular to a frame element supported by a supporting element of the core section.
Advantageously, a tower airer made with a connecting member according to the present invention can be collapsed to an overall thickness of approximately two frame elements as opposed to the conventional three. Thus, 50% more units than normal can be packed into a given space and transported by, for instance, a lorry for distribution purposes. Furthermore, a home user requires less space to store such a tower airer thus freeing up more space for other items.
Preferably there are two additional supporting members. More preferably, one additional supporting member is pivotally mounted to one side of the core section and the other additional supporting member is pivotally mounted to the opposite side of the core section.
Preferably, the additional members are arranged to support frame elements in substantially parallel spaced apart directions. Preferably, the supporting members of the core section are arranged to support frame elements in substantially parallel, spaced apart directions.
Preferably, the support members comprise fittings arranged to connect to a frame element. More preferably, the support members comprise hollow tubes. The support members may be arranged to support elongate frame elements. Preferably, the hollow tubes have an internal diameter which is substantially equivalent to the external diameter of an elongate frame element that is intended to be supported by the connecting member.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a clothes airer comprising a connecting member according to the first aspect of the present invention.
Preferably, there are two connecting members and four frame elements respectively connected to a supporting member of each connecting member. Preferably, two frame elements are fixed to a corresponding supporting member of each connecting member and two frame elements are releasably attached to a corresponding supporting member of each connecting member. More preferably, two frame elements are fixed to supporting members at the same end of each connecting member and the other two frame elements are releasably attached to supporting members at the opposite end of each connecting member.
At least one support is preferably attached to the two frame elements that are supported by a supporting member of the core section at the same corresponding point along each frame element. The clothes airer preferably comprises at least one shelf. Preferably the shelf is rectangular and pivotally mounted at two adjacent corners to a pair of supports. At least one retention clip is preferably attached to the two frame elements that are supported by the pivotally mounted supporting members at the same corresponding points along each frame element as the supports. The retention clip preferably has a recess that is sized and configured to receive a longitudinal edge of a shelf.